


izumi's love life

by darlingtimes



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, just a happening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24497602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingtimes/pseuds/darlingtimes
Summary: Taichi and Kazunari ask Chikage to do a little sleuthing.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 65





	izumi's love life

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoy!!
> 
> very minor edit: i felt bad about forgetting about Guy so uhhh added him being responsible! also hints about chikage's background but no major act 2 spoilers, if you're on ENG server..!

“Hey, Chikage..? You’re good at internet research, right?! Could you look up a Takuya from the Dreamland Troupe?!”

Chikage looked up from his laptop at a flustered Taichi and an amused-looking Kazunari right behind him, a pair that he couldn’t say he interacted with too often.

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“Well, er, uh, we just happened to watch a performance of theirs and were wondering--”

Kazunari interrupted Taichi and chirped, “We heard he’s the Director’s ex from the Winter Troupe and we couldn’t find too much about him! So we came enlist your skills, Chikachon!”

“Kazu..! You didn’t need to tell him that much..!”

“Aw, but wouldn’t you feel bad keeping it from him? Plus, apparently the Director said herself it wasn’t a touchy subject and there were no hard feelings! Or something like that!”

Chikage chuckled and opened a new window, obscuring the blog post he was writing. “Okay, I got it. Fell in a rut stalking him?”

“Uh, we tried, but his troupe’s website didn’t have any information on him and we couldn’t find his SNS…” Taichi said sheepishly.

“Ah. That’s because he works in smaller roles and as an understudy. Something like our ensemble cast, it looks like.”

“That was fast..! He has a public account? How did you find it?” Taichi plopped down on the couch and craned his neck to see the screen; Kazunari did the same on Chikage’s other side.

“I checked his troupe’s account for a Takuya in the follows.”

“Ooh, Facebook. Old.” Kazunari made a face and said, “I stuck too hard to following links to Twitter and Instagram, from their site, so I totally forgot to do a basic Google search~”

“Anyway, now you have his account, so how about I get back to my--”

Interrupting Chikage, Taichi said firmly, “Let’s see a picture of him! Maybe we can figure out the Director’s type!”

“Do you think there are any date shots of them? Ooh, we can find out how long they dated!”

The Puppy Pair’s noise level rose as they excitedly chattered and pushed Chikage to look for this and that about Takuya. Chikage took a moment to mourn his blogging time inside his head, but obediently went along with them and started scrolling down the timeline.

As they were going about their stalking, the doorbell rang. The three paused to see if anyone else would go ahead and take it, but it looked like they were the only ones around.

Kazunari took it upon himself to get up and answer the door, calling out “If you find anything juicy, save it for me!”

“Got it, Kazu!”




“Hello! Is there a delivery, or…?”

At the door was a pleasant looking young man, holding a stack of papers. He looked a little bit older than Kazunari, although he was shorter by a couple centimeters. “Hello there! You could call this a bit of an informal delivery. I’m Takuya Sasahara. Izumi accidentally left some documents behind at my troupe’s office yesterday. Is she in right now, or should I leave these with you?”

_Whoa, Izumi? Not Tachibana…?_ The familiarity at which the man called the Director stunned Kazunari for half a second, but he quickly replied “I can take them! She’s out right now, but I’ll tell her you brought them.”

“Great, thanks. By the way, your company is doing a great job--I try and catch at least closing night for all of your plays.” Handing over the documents, he finished with a “Keep at it. Have a great day!”

“Thanks! You too!”

Sasahara grinned and nodded his head in goodbye, then headed down the street towards the train station.

Kazunari took one last glance at the cheerful man’s back, then ducked back inside to deliver the Director’s papers and catch up on the sleuthing.




“They’re not in any of the pictures together at all..!”

“Well, not everyone posts about their love life online. I think this is all we got.”

Kazunari came back to Taichi and Chikage stuck at a dead end, though he assumed they had made some progress by the increased number of tabs open.

“What’d ya find while I was gone?”

“Kazu!” Taichi looked up from the screen. “We have pictures of him! Also the Director! But not together.”

“Oooh, baby Director! Lemme see, lemme see!”

Taichi moved Chikage’s hand off the mousepad and opened one of the tabs to reveal a group picture of the troupe in costume from years ago. Izumi was far in the corner of the group, smiling wide and surprisingly distinct for someone so clearly a background character--everyone else was posing gracefully, likely imitating their role, but her face only showed her and her excitement.

“Cuute. Our Director really loves theater,” Kazunari said fondly. “What about her ex?”

“Takuya isn’t in this picture, but he did post a backstage selfie during this play’s run time…” Chikage clicked open another tab to a post of a man in costume, smiling in the dressing room.

Kazunari’s eyes widened--he had _just_ seen that smile. “Takuya Sasahara!”

“Uhh, yeah? That’s him?”

“That is! But no, ugh, I--” Kazunari smacked his forehead dramatically. “Taicchan! Sasahara was just here! The person at the door! I didn’t notice his name was the same because I was too busy thinking it was weird that he called the Director by her first name, but that makes sense!”

“He was just here?! He what?! What did he want, was he looking for the Director?!”

“He was! But like, not in a bad way or anything, he just wanted to deliver these,” Kazunari raised the documents in his hand. “Man, what a coincidence!”

“I’m home, and I have some curry ingredients for tonight! Who was just here and looking for me?”

The boys froze at the sound of Izumi’s voice. When they turned to see, she was coming into the living room, arms full with groceries. Taichi stuttered out a “W-Welcome home!” before going completely mute.

Chikage smoothly replaced the evidence of stalking on his screen with his blog page before she came any closer and called out coolly, “Welcome back, Director. You got a delivery from someone.”

Snapping back to attention, Kazunari turned towards Izumi and waved the papers, saying, “Hey, Director! Yeah, someone swung by to drop these off for you!”

“Oh, those are the stage plans I was missing!” After putting down her grocery bags on the kitchen table, she walked over and grabbed them. “I must have left them at that office. Thanks, Kazunari. I should call the troupe to thank them, too… Did the person who brought these over say their name?”

Coming up with a convincing distraction on the spot was asking for a little much from his brain, so… Kazunari threw a single, grim smile at Chikage and Taichi before bracing himself and saying, “Yup! Takuya Sasahara! He also said we were doing a great job with performances.” He hoped that it really wasn’t a touchy subject.

“Takuya! I didn’t see him when I helped out, but I guess he’s still with them,” she said, smiling. “Alright, I’m going to put these away and then get started on dinner!”

“Can’t wait!” Kazunari watched as she disappeared to her room, and let out a big breath. Taichi did the same, and sank into the couch.

“Well, that’s over. You guys done with stalking her ex?” Chikage said, shutting his laptop.

“I know I am… Yikes, that surprised me...!” Taichi said.

“Seemed totally fine, though. Good that there didn’t seem to be any drama between them… Sasahara was like, super nice, and the Director even smiled saying his name! I wonder if they stayed friends after they broke up?”

Suddenly, they heard a quick-paced, nervous voice floating in from the hallway. “W-what if they’re still in love?! It’d be so sad if it got all complicated and ended up with them breaking up when they didn’t want to..! And he came over just for the chance to see her face, hiding his feelings with a smile…”

“Muku. Your imagination is running away again, Kazunari’s literally talking about how they both looked fine. Can we move from the hallway already? Come on, I need the dog.”

A red-faced Muku came into view, pushed from behind by Yuki.

“We weren’t accidentally listening in or anything!!” he blurted out.

Ignoring Muku, Yuki said, “Taichi, I want some hemming done before dinner. You coming?”

“Oh, yeah!” Taichi shot up from his seat and ran over to join Yuki and Muku.

Stretching, Kazunari said, “Speaking of before dinner, I should probably get some Insta shots in the courtyard before the sun goes down. Thanks for the help, Chikachon!”

“No problem.” As the boys left the room, Chikage shook his head with a small smile on his face _. Goodness, I don’t think I’ve passed a day in this home without some small commotion._




That night, Chikage stepped out onto the balcony for a break in between his work. Azuma was sitting at the table and enjoying the night sky, a cup of fragrant tea in hand.

“Oh, Azuma. Good evening. No wine tonight?”

“Good evening, Chikage. No, I received an herbal tea I wanted to try--I was told it would give me sweet dreams. Here for a breath of fresh air? Would you like a cup?”

“I’ll pass on the tea, but thanks. By any chance, did you talk to any of the kids about certain information the Director revealed the last time we went drinking?”

“My, whatever could you mean?” Azuma smiled and sipped his tea. “The only things that might have slipped from my mouth in conversation were ‘Dreamland Troupe’ and ‘old friend.’ Perhaps a name. I can’t help it if that conversation also happened to concern romance--the pup is rather interested in that sort of thing, after all.”

“Haha, I thought so. Taichi and Kazunari asked me to do some sleuthing today.” Chikage leaned against the railing and felt the night breeze on his face.

“Really, now? And what did you find?”

“Some pictures of her ‘friend,’ but mainly of the Director in her old acting days. We didn’t get to look too deeply beyond the gallery, but Taichi and Kazunari had fun anyway.”

“Ahaha, I’d love to see that. She rarely speaks about her past, after all, despite knowing about all of ours.” Azuma glanced at Chikage, a smile on his face.

“I’ll show you some time.” Chikage inwardly winced at Azuma’s all-knowing expression--not that there was any basis in that. He trusted that the secret wouldn’t come to light from the Director or Hisoka’s lips--not without them telling him first, anyway.

“Well, break time’s over. Good night, Azuma.”

“Good night, Chikage. Let’s chat again another night, perhaps over some wine.”

“Sounds good to me.”

As Chikage headed back to his room, Azuma set his tea cup down and rested his face on his hand. Chuckling to himself, he remembered the recent occasion on which Izumi likely spoke a few more words than she meant to.




A week or two prior, the Winter Troupe and Izumi had gone out to celebrate the end of a play run. By coincidence, they had seen Chikage passing by, likely checking out spice shops in the area, and invited him to join them.

The night was ending up the same as always, with Tasuku and Tsumugi in a heated theater debate, Hisoka steadily making his way through the bar’s supply, and Homare spouting poems in tears while Guy tried to minimize their disturbance to the other customers. This time, however, it seemed that Azuma and Chikage had joined forces to tease the Director for a bit.

“It was noothing. I’m telling you, I don’t have a love life! Right now and for a long time, theater has been the most important thing! And curry!”

“My, but aren’t we important to you? Or did you count us together with theater?” Azuma widened his eyes slightly, causing Izumi’s defenses to waver.

“W-well, yeah, but that’s besides the--”

Chikage swooped in and said, “In that case, he _couldn’t_ have been nothing, as part of your old troupe, right?”

“Geez, why are you two even asking about this… I gave my answer back during _Sympathy for the Angel_ , didn’t I?” Izumi gave a pointed glare to Chikage, leaving _I don’t doubt_ you’d _know already if you wanted to!_ unsaid--he could probably tell.

“But now that time has passed and we’re closer, won’t you elaborate on that answer and tell us more? We just want to know about our precious Director,” Azuma said, almost imploringly.

Chikage was about to add another line about how she knows about everyone else’s emotional baggage, but it looked like Azuma tipped her off the edge.

“Ugh… Fine. But it really was nothing, so don’t complain about my answer, okay?”

Chikage and Azuma exchanged smiles with the air of a high-five, if they were the kind of people to do that, and Izumi took another sip of her drink.

“Takuya and I were really good friends, and at some point we started going out on dates, too. That went on for a while, and we enjoyed being together and talking, but it wasn’t anything serious and we never officially established anything. After I got kicked from the troupe we drifted apart and stopped contacting each other, but there were never any bad feelings between us. No big deal, the end. Happy?” She huffed and crossed her arms.

“Thank you for telling us, Director.” Azuma smiled. “I don’t suppose he was your first…?”

“I am _not_ telling you that!”

“The Director is embarrassed about her romantic experience, noted.”

“Don’t take notes, Chikage!!”




Azuma took the last sip of his tea and let out a content breath. _Living here has brought me an awful lot of lively memories_ , he thought. _Looks like I’ll be able to sleep soundly tonight_.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! i never know how to do ending scenes so i always just *spits out words in a wholesome fashion* .. it ends up awkward, but it's sweet, so that's okay :,)
> 
> i'm beginning to realize i like to ramble a lot in end notes, so oops, but...
> 
> writing kazu is hard because i know no slang... i.. i really considered making kazu say 'welcome backsies' since he says 'okaeringo,' and i love him, but that would physically hurt me, so i...didn’t... but i almost did.
> 
> and writing azuma makes me hear his beautiful voice in my head and i just,, *buries face in pillow* also i’m in tears because i wrote him here, sipping tea by himself on the balcony… that means he feels secure enough to spend quality time alone… honey... darling...


End file.
